As Sony puts together its sequel to this summer's 'Amazing Spider-Man,' the roster of new faces coming aboard is shaping up to be quite impressive. We've got Shailene Woodley ('The Descendants') coming on as Mary Jane Watson, Dane DeHaan ('Chronicle') taking on the role of Harry Osborn, and the villainous Electro to be played by Jamie Foxx ('Django Unchained'). The most recent piece of casting news however pertains to an actor from the first film returning for part two, and an unexpected return at that. Martin Sheen will evidently be reprising his role as Peter's Uncle Ben. Here's what he let slip during a recent appearance on an Irish talk show...

"They've called me back, I don't know what the part is gonna be, but I'm going to be 'Uncle Ben' once again in Spider-Man next year. We shoot it in February."

Warning: 'Amazing Spider-Man' Spoilers To Follow

Obviously what makes this an unexpected move by Sony is that Uncle Ben was murdered in the first movie, much as he was in Raimi's 'Spider-Man'AND the comics. So I suppose the spoiler warning was a bit unnecessary. The fact that he's dead in no way precludes him from being in the sequel of course. They could construct any number of flashbacks or other playful narrative timelines to work him back into the story. That's the thing about comic books, no one is ever really dead, are they? The reason this story strikes me is not Uncle Ben's return from the grave, but what that may represent in terms of overarching themes. One of the things that bugs me about how Spider-Man has been handled cinematically up to now is that his origin story is revisited and rehashed ad nauseam despite the fact that he has possibly the most basic origin imaginable: spider...bites man...Spider-Man. And as to the Uncle Ben motivation, that theme has underscored pretty much every Spider-Man film up to this point as to be white noise. I think the less they revisit this the more they sidestep the trap of being totally redundant. 

What do you guys think? Do we another Uncle Ben appearance? Is this the wrong move for the franchise?

Source: RTE (via CBM)